Google Launching Twitter-Killer For Gmail!

Google could launch a Twitter-killer as soon as this week, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Google already allows Gmail users to update their status. The prompt reads, "let people know what you're up to, or share links to photos, videos, and Web pages." But every time a user updates their status, the previous update disappears into the ether.

The WSJ says the new feature will "allow Gmail users to view a stream of status updates from people they choose to connect with." It will be tightly integrated with Google's video-sharing site YouTube and its photo-sharing site Picasa.

If Google is smart, these status updates will pour into and out of Facebook and Twitter. That way it will have an immediate install base of users already trained to update everyone they know about the latest thing they viewed, thought or ate.

Otherwise, it's hard to see how this feature won't end up as another in a long line of Google products that tried, and failed, to beat popular services from Web rivals (See Orkut versus MySpace, Google Video versus YouTube, Open Social versus Facebook Platform, Google Friend Connect versus Facebook Connect).

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Why not just buy Twitter? Could probably get it for $2 billion at this point. And then you're in great shape versus Facebook when Facebook launches Gmail killer. And you're tops in real-time search as well.

Google could have bought Twitter a year ago for $500 million and 6 months ago for $1 billion. Price keep going up. And NO WAY is this new feature going to derail Twitter.

Not sure how updating your status and being able to see historical statuses is competition for Twitter. When Google offers the real-time interaction, #hashtag chats, 10,000+ third-party apps and a more enjoyable experience than Google Chat, then we can maybe talk more on this.

I read a lot about Google 's failure in creating social properties and most of what I read I agree with. However I do think Google has a very good base on which to build a solid social application. Gmail, Open Social, Friends Connect and App Engine are just a few solid technologies that Google can use to blanket the web with many Facebooks. I am a user of Friends Connect on some of my sites and I find it very useful. The big problem I have with the service is that it doesn't offer me a full blown community site. If only Google would get serious and produce something like Ning, that can be distributed like Adsense to smaller sites, they would have a winner. Friends Connect needs to become a full blown distributed social application.

I don't care about killing Twitter -- but I'd be happy with more Google service integration. My whole thing is I don't really want anymore accounts, I hate signing up at new places. But I already use GReader, YTube, Gmail, Blogger, and many other Google products under the Google Account umbrella. Its a nice cozy womb of goodness Google has developed. Allowing me to create a social graph and share things more easily with people would be a good thing. The problem is many are not using Gmail, so just like any social network, scale is everything, and Gmail really isnt that big, what 40 million or so? So thats a problem. Still, this would be a good excuse for me to harass more people into getting onto the Google Account train. Android helps there, as well. People forget every Android user becomes a Google Account holder, and probably a Google Checkout customer as well. Chrome bookmark sync as well, need a Google account. Chrome OS, gonna need a Google Account.